God Answers Speedily (Sometimes)

The Lord says: Before they call, I will answer. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer… You will cry for help, and I will say: Here am I. (Isaiah 65:24, 58:9)

This post continues to look at amazing ways the Lord cares for us. This builds on God Answers Before We Pray (Sometimes)

The Listening  Lord

One night, a mother prayed with her young daughter before bedtime. The child asks, “Jesus, please lock the doors if they haven’t been locked.” The Mom smiles at this and forgets about it. The next morning, she opens the front door to find her keys outside in the lock! She’s amazed at how the Lord led her little girl to pray, and then the Lord answered so wonderfully. This happy mom praised God for His personal protection and told all her friends what the Lord had done!

What a loving, sympathetic Heavenly Father we have, dear Christians! His general rule for us in prayer is: “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your selfish pleasures.”¹ God even required Jesus, His Incarnate Son, to pray, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”²

Nehemiah’s Prayer

In Isaiah, the Lord promises, “While they are yet speaking I will hear.” That reminds us of Nehemiah shooting up a flare prayer (a brief, spontaneous prayer) to the Lord in the middle of his conversation with King Artaxerxes of Persia.³ On that occasion, God turned this pagan king’s heart around on the spot and granted a favorable answer! The Lord caused the ruler to allow, and even pay for, the construction of Israel’s second temple!

This was similar to the Hebrews receiving reparations from the Egyptians near the time of the Exodus, symbolizing their move from slavery to freedom.⁴ The Egyptians were probably happy to get rid of these pesty people and their God after suffering the ruin of the ten plagues that the Lord had sent. God used Egyptian gold, silver, and bronze to build His Tabernacle. Nehemiah often brought his problems to the Lord in prayer, and so should we.⁵

Daniel’s Prayer

Remember a similar story in Daniel chapter 9. Daniel was reading God’s prophecy given through Jeremiah. The Lord said that Israel’s exile would last only seventy years. Daniel turned the Bible’s promise into a petition, asking the Lord to fulfill His pledge. Then God sent an immediate answer!

I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and making my request to the Lord my God for His holy hill. While I was still pleading, Gabriel (the angel) came to me in swift flight. He instructed me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given. And I came to tell you, because God loves you very much. So think about the message and understand the vision.”⁶

It was a fulfillment of Isaiah 65:24: “While they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Daniel prayed the Bible back to God, and the Lord sent a rapid reply.

Jesus in Gethsemane

Remember our Lord’s prayer in the Garden, committing Himself to and composing Himself for the cross.⁷ The Son of God prayed, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” Jesus was not shrinking from His eternal mission for our salvation, but He lets us see that it cost Him dearly to redeem us. Christ was made the sin bearer for us, a curse for us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.⁸ Jesus was going to the cross to be forsaken by His Father for us.⁹ So Christ offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to God, and Jesus submitted to God His Father, entirely and without qualification.¹⁰ Luke records, “Then an angel appeared to Christ from heaven, strengthening Him.” While Jesus was praying, God sent the angel to strengthen, help, and comfort His Son for His cross-work, but not to eliminate the agony and horror of the cross to ransom us and pay our sin debt.

God’s involvement at Gethsemane was similar to His provision for Jesus at the outset of His public Messianic work. Christ was in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan for forty days. Jesus was out among the wild animals, and the Father continually sent angels to take care of His Son.¹¹ Sometimes God answers speedily, sometimes slowly. Let’s praise Him either way!

Dear Christians, why do we neglect prayer?

Pastor R. A. Torrey (1856–1928) laments, “We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to receive God’s power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little. Many services, but few conversions. Much machinery, but few results.”¹²

The Flow of Isaiah’s Prophecy

The Lord’s tone in Isaiah chapter 65 is comforting and encouraging to repenting sinners saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. He urges us to pray and receive His bounties. Remember how the book of Isaiah unfolds:

We are now living in the last section of Isaiah’s prophecy, beloved! Jesus has already come the first time to save His people from our sins. He lived obediently for us. He died the cursed death we deserve. Christ was raised from the grave for us, and put His Holy Spirit into every believer as a permanent resident! We are temples of the Spirit!¹³

The Lord has already accomplished all this. It’s a done deal. Now God the Spirit continually helps His believers here on earth to pray the prayers we ought to and to reshape our selfish supplications into acceptable ones. God the Son sits at His Father’s right hand interceding for us, pleading that the everlasting merits of His blood be continually re-applied to us. God the Father hears our prayers, helped by the Spirit and the Son, and He answers! The Lord gives us grace, mercy, and kindness to help us when we need it.¹⁴

No wonder the Savior commands us not to worry about food, drink, clothing, shelter, and our other legitimate needs. “For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”¹⁵

Notes (various Bible translations, sometimes my own): ¹ James 4:2-3.   ² Ps 2:8.   ³ Neh 2:1-9.   ⁴ Exo 12:36.   ⁵ See Neh 1:4; 4:4,9; 5:19; 6:9,14; 13:14,22,29, 31.   ⁶ Dan 9:20-23.   ⁷ Luke 22:39-46.   ⁸ 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; John 1:29.   ⁹ Ps 22:1; Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34.   ¹⁰ Heb 5:7.   ¹¹ Mark 1:13.   ¹² How to Obtain Fullness of Power, p. 58.   ¹³ 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19-20; Eph 4:30.   ¹⁴ Heb 4:15-16.   ¹⁵ Matt 6:32-33.